Pathways Between Dominance and Goodwill: Changing the Perspective for Successful Stakeholder Integration

With a rising awareness for the stakeholder view, integrating stakeholder issues has become a major challenge for organizations. With our study, we aim to contribute to a line of research on the role of democratic thinking for stakeholder integration. Additionally, our study sheds light on the role of intermediaries and the capabilities needed to shape the relationships with indirect stakeholders. Data from a qualitative study with 24 semi-structured expert interviews from four intermediary groups were analyzed in MAXQDA following the principles for a qualitative content analysis. Six higher-order categories emerge, which serve as a basis for a process model for the management of stakeholder relations. We find that the actors managing stakeholder relations understand the strategic dimension of their roles as intermediaries and appreciate the support through organizational capabilities such as guidelines and structural tools. We identify that besides their personal and professional competences, intermediaries use their procedural competences, such as the suitable application of communication instruments and their access to contacts, to manage stakeholder relationships. Finally, our process model classifies different measures for stakeholder integration and discusses implications for stakeholder theory and practitioners.